Carroll Bell ES advances in ‘Read to the Final Four’ competition

Third grade students from Carroll Bell Elementary School have officially advanced to the next round of the NCAA literacy competition “Read to the Final Four.”

A total of 32 schools were selected to move forward to the second round, which is taking place from Jan. 24 through Feb. 6.

Carroll Bell ES third grade teacher Lori Castoreno is excited to continue in the competition and represent Harlandale ISD.

“We are overwhelmed with excitement,” Castoreno said. “The Read to the Final Four Tournament is a great way to motivate our students to read, and we know our students will do their best to make Carroll Bell proud.”

According to Castoreno, the literacy challenge offers an alternative to the traditional learning that goes on within the school environment.

“The children are not limited in their reading selections and take on an ownership in their learning,” she said. “This allows students the opportunity to increase fluency, vocabulary, understanding and knowledge of text.”

Now in the next round, the students are exhibiting much enthusiasm and are sharing their excitement on how much they read each night. They are working together as a team to advance to the next round.

“Our school is very competitive, and this tournament just proves how competitive we are,” Castoreno said. “We will be cheering each other, and we definitely hope to win!”

Two of Carroll Bell ES students made the Top 10 Girl Readers list in the first round: Esmeralda Cocolan with 3,747 minutes read and Daphne Mendez with 3,210 minutes read.

Regardless of how each school finishes in the bracket, the top two boy and top two girl readers who have read the most minutes overall will receive brand new bicycles and will be invited to join the celebration field trip at Fan Fest to be recognized.

In the end, the winning school will receive a classroom library make-over from Scholastic valued at $5,000.